Pinterest Isn't the End of the World and It Won't Get You Kicked Out of Your Mom Group - I Promise
By Tommie Alexander | Submitted On September 24, 2013
Hello. My name is Tommie and I'm addicted to Pinterest. When it made its debut some years ago, I deliberately avoided it like the plague. I already had a knee-deep collection of craft, home, and cooking magazines that I just couldn't part with, because I referenced back to them often for ideas. My addiction had become so bad, that I had stashes of magazines all over my house. I realized when not a single one more could be crammed in anywhere, I was going to have to create some sort of filing system. I took stack after stack and one by one ripped out the pages I couldn't live without and sorted them into labeled manila file folders. This saved me space, for sure, but the system took forever and I had oodles of periodicals flowing in each month putting me behind again.
Despite my hoarding tendencies, I'd finally had enough, gave in to the masses, and joined Pinterest. What this did for me was allow me to cancel all those subscriptions {though clearly I have still saved a "few" or ten stragglers}. I was able to grab loads of ideas, recipes, and craft tutorials within seconds of logging in and doing a quick search. Plus, I was already an avid blogger/crafter and could easily display my own creations and brainstorms. Any site I stumbled on or frequented could automatically become a reference with a picture for me to refer back to any time I wanted without cluttering my "Favorites". I cancelled my subscriptions {though I still love the smell and feel of a magazine and will occasionally succumb to one in a blue moon just for nostalgia's sake} and cleared my cache. Now two years later, I have 52 boards and nearly 5,000 pins and I gotta say, that ain't bad. I try to keep my pins realistic and things that I will someday attempt or purchase. I've learned to research my pins before collecting them to make sure they aren't hoaxes as so many have proven to be in the past. water marbles hoax
As much as I loved having a better system for organization and essentially free advertising, other Pinterest members {mostly moms} were starting to experience "Pinterest stress"over the pins they were collecting as reported on Today Moms. I agree the whole thing could be overwhelming at times, but to endure stress over ideas and pictures baffles me to my core. I have always had an interest in crafts, baking, sewing, and "the details" and have persistently engaged in those desires since I was a kid. I observe similar behavior in my own daughter and foster those interests in her. Pinterest, for me, seems like the natural progression for like-minded individuals such as myself looking to have a better system of organization without the physical ramifications of having to keep track of tangible things, which in my case would be a collassal collection of periodicals. Truly, anything that was working me up enough to be stressed over a virtual pin board would just have to be lived without. Who needs extra stress or pressure when it's something as silly as a website that you can simply just walk away from?
I've seen blasts such as this one on Facebook calling out mothers such as myself who just want to indulge our own individual interests. Mothers enduring the "Pinterest stress" phenomenon are shaking their fingers and chastising mothers who, like me, delight in making their children's Halloween costumes, decorate parties with a homemade touch, and sit down with the kids to make Christmas ornaments. This Facebook post refers to moms, like me, who enjoy these interests as "Stepford freaks." I feel bad for the mother who allowed herself to become so wrapped up in keeping up with other people's interests that she lost herself and began belittling others. I am thirty-six years old and admit I grew up in a state of home economics (a class, I admit that spoke to me even in the 6th grade). I was raised in a small town by my grandparents who were most definitely hands on and self-doers. My grandmother worked at a bank, but was also the most talented homemaker I've ever known. She did it all. She worked, raised me, baked, cooked, crafted, decorated then redecorated, sewed so many of my clothes, kept an insanely clean house, and was my ultimate role model. My granddad worked for the phone company where he climbed poles day in and day out making repairs. Not only did he work a full-time job, he raised me, helped me with my homework, played board games with me that I am sure bored him to his core, grew an insanely large vegetable garden, kept the nicest yard I've ever seen, and raised 8-10 hunting dogs at a time. He also built furniture including two pieces I still have that are almost as old as I am. I have the interests I have probably because I was surrounded by them all my life and learned first hand from loving, caring people. I also have the work and family ethics I do thanks to my grandparents (Glory be to God) for whom I would surely have led a different life had they not rescued me. I enjoy discovering new recipes, different crafting ideas, and what's current with home décor because those have always been of interest to me. In middle school, Gran & I would get the latest teen magazine and pour through it for ideas and makeup tips. Then, she would get busy duplicating the clothes I liked and showed me how to get the "smoky eye" that Debbie Gibson described. Later, I would find another role model who embodied all things I loved most. I remember the first time I laid eyes on Martha Stewart in high school and fell in love with her entire being. I felt a kindred connection with her, not malice for her abilities. I can understand someone being overwhelmed with the desires to want to have abilities they don't, but calling people out for their gifts and talents isn't just absurd, it's mean. Not everyone who prowls the site pinning at will is doing it out of malice or to make others feel inferior. Some of us, just plain love to indulge ourselves and feed our creative needs. I'm often lovingly teased by those closest to me for my talents in crafting. My reply is this; God blessed me with the ability to sew curtains, bake and decorate moist cupcakes, and turn a curb-side piece of furniture in to something beautiful. He did not give me the gift of athleticism. I can not throw, kick, or catch a ball of any kind. I don't discourage others from playing sports just because I am handicapped in those talents, and I certainly don't call people out for being gifted in ways I am not. God gave us all our own strengths and abilities in different ways. If we were all the same, we wouldn't learn from each other and how very boring life would be then.
I agree with the Facebook ranter, that Pinterest shouldn't take the place of time with your family or cause unnecessary anxiety. This idea is silly to me, though. It's a resource. An online pin board larger than life that holds significantly more space than my childhood cork board did, allowing me the freedom to collect and discard as I see fit. Endlessly. Allowing something that is meant to be a resource to make you feel inadequate is absurd. The insecurity is within thyself. Don't let your expectations get in the way of your happiness. Admittedly, I know it's easy to do because great mothers are always challenging themselves, but is your mom group really going to kick you out because you didn't make a Pinterest worthy cake for your child's second birthday? Come on. People from all over the world pin their desires and interests that are personal to them, creating a vast growing resource of eye candy for anyone with interests in fashion, art, food, pets, gardening, beauty, fitness, health, education, and more. It's a homeschooler's dream stockpile with endless possibilities and materials available with just a touch, it's a crafter's stash connecting us with lost crafts that bring a flood of happy memories from our childhood allowing us to pass that down to our own kids, it's a virtual recipe box full to the brim with mouth-watering recipes for the beginner cook to the gourmet chef. Pinterest is a way for lovely designers, who effortlessly decorate a client's home, keep files and share ideas with those by which they are employed. For me, it's my box of magazine files filling me with happiness. It gives me the freedom to try new things, start new projects, and broaden my horizons. I don't feel limited by the possibilities of what is merely just a very large bulletin board. I feel the excitement I get when a beautiful magazine cover, full of holiday promise, is delivered to my door or catches my eye in the checkout line. Pinterest satiates my cravings for new things to try when I just can't be still, because my hunger for doing, making, and creating is deep within my blood and it gives me nothing short of pride when my kids enjoy something I made, baked, or built for them. Honestly, that's all I ever want; to make my kids happy and for them to know that I take pleasure in bringing a smile to their faces.
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Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tommie_Alexander/1708110
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